Search Results for “Spec Ops” – Page 4

This Year In Videogame Blogging: 2013

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Publications

Originally we called this print, but as the world moves towards digital, the specialist publications have begun to emerge. What used to be collaborative blogs has emerged into specialist publications with a wide variety of voices and names contributing.

Alan Williamson’s first full year of Five Out of Ten magazine put out a load of great work. Too many names to list here – 17 in all – contributed high quality critical work in its pages.

Another digital magazine, that got its start this year, is Zoya Street’s Memory Insufficient with 7 issues to its

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February 16th

Hi. Kris Ligman again. I seem to be taking this whole semi-retirement thing pretty hard, because here I am again. Let’s hit the books and/or bricks and get cracking on a great new roundup of the week’s best in games writing! It’s This Week in Videogame Blogging!

Teachabilly

On Normally Rascal, Stephen Beirne contrasts a mob scene in Bioshock Infinite to a similar moment in Spec Ops: The Line:

It is forever the failing of the medium that Decisions must be made with a capital-D, structured for presentation of both sides, as if both sides

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June – July Roundup: ‘VINPCs’

…calcified; a long march through a hellish city stuck in a purgatorial loop of violence, death, and rebirth that mirrors the aesthetic of internet snuff.”

It’s really interesting how Dog Days was excoriated on release, but many critics are now discussing it as a “proto-anti-shooter” in the vein of Far Cry 2 and Spec Ops: The Line. I guess the question is when a game is being intentionally “oppressive”, and when it’s just shit.

Dakoda Barker is attached to their players in Football Manager 2014, everyone’s favourite mod for Microsoft Excel. I’m working on the next issue…

November 9th

…the cowering, surviving civilians trapped in the conflict.

Meanwhile, at Ontological Geek, Tom Dawson turns his eye back to 2012’s Spec Ops: The Line and why it asks “How many Americans have you killed today?” and if that isn’t sending the wrong message.

Finally, Robert Rath talks about a different type of war, the War on Terror, and how Shadows of Mordor is a mirror of that conflict. He says the game fails Tolkien’s world by eliminating the themes of idealism, suspicion of power and our better natures triumphing to instead mire itself in modern cynicism, realpolitik and…

Now Accepting Submissions for TYIVGB 2014 Edition

…(2005) –The Lester Bangs of Video Games by Chuck Klosterman (2006) –Ludonarrative Dissonance by Clint Hocking (2007) –Taxonomy of Gamers by Mitch Krapta (2008) –Permanent Death by Ben Abraham (2009) –Video games can never be art by Roger Ebert (2010) –The Pratfall of Penny Arcade – A Timeline (aka Debacle Timeline) by Unknown (2011) –Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec Ops: The Line by Brendan Keogh (2012) –Tropes vs. Women in Video Games by Anita Sarkeesian (2013 to present)

2. Any pieces that are an excellent example of larger trends surrounding the most talked about games of…

Our TYIVGB Methodology

…Keogh’s book on Spec Ops: The Line, Killing is Harmless, and Leigh Alexander and Kirk Hamilton’s Final Fantasy VII letter series.

For the rest of the first starter list, I read through all the TWIVGBs of the past year. I pull out all the links I remember throughout the year and any further links that seem of interest for the year roundup. Previously, I read all of the featured links, but this was time-consuming and my current method creates pretty much the same starter list in a much shorter amount of time.

The Second List

The second…

Now Accepting Submissions for TYIVGB 2015 Edition

…you remember this piece of writing. They are pieces that get cited to this day, even years later, would fall under this category. Examples from previous years:

–The New Games Journalism by Kieron Gillen (2005) –The Lester Bangs of Video Games by Chuck Klosterman (2006) –Ludonarrative Dissonance by Clint Hocking (2007) –Taxonomy of Gamers by Mitch Krapta (2008) –Permanent Death by Ben Abraham (2009) –Video games can never be art by Roger Ebert (2010) –The Pratfall of Penny Arcade – A Timeline (aka Debacle Timeline) by Unknown (2011) –Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec Ops: The Line…

Now Accepting Submissions for TYIVGB 2016 Edition

…something that would stand the test of time and be remembered and cited long after its was published. Examples from previous years:

Ludonarrative Dissonance by Clint Hocking (2007)
Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec Ops: The Line by Brendan Keogh (2012)
We are not colonists by Gita Jackson (2015)

Which games were talked about the most?

For example, last year that might have included Metal Gear Solid V, Bloodborne, The Beginner’s Guide, etc. We’re looking for example pieces that highlight the discussion around those games, and exemplify the key issues raised…

June 4th

…and Prayers: The Problem with An Empty Gesture | Sufficiently Human Lana Polansky points out the effective but imperfect satire of empty gestures using the game Thoughts and Prayers.

How the Meaning of Vanquish (and Spec Ops: The Line) Changed – Writing on Games – YouTube (Video with subtitles) Hammish Black examines the how a game’s context changes what the game means within even just a few years.

Remodeling the Labyrinth | First Person Scholar Jeremy Antley highlights the problems with historically gamifying an on-going period of history, and players’ efforts to update the war game to better…

June 18th

…Harrison considers whether the storytelling in Horizon Zero Dawn demonstrates the limitations of gaming as a medium, or just RPG design orthodoxy.

We Need Another Boundary-Breaker Like ‘Planescape: Torment’ – Waypoint Cameron Kunzelman wants to see more critical reflexivity in mainstream gaming.

“In the age of hype and Jason Derulo, I wonder about the next Planescape: Torment. I don’t mean spiritual successors or Kickstarter-funded jaunts down the memory lane of isomorphic RPGs. I’m talking about the next game that wants to have an ambivalent stance toward the genre it’s a part of. Spec Ops: The Line,…